Natural Tunnel - June 11-15

Well, my Junior Youth Sunday School class enjoyed camping so much the last time that we have decided to do it again. Butch and I will be setting up on Saturday afternoon and the kids will be arriving on Sunday afternoon after church. We will stay until Wednesday, probably.

Anybody want to come and join us.....we had a blast last time and burned lots of wood in the evenings. I'm probably taking 5 girls and 3 boys, age 13 (those middle schoolers).

I think Elora will be tagging along, she can keep up with them most of the time and the pool will be open.

I am finally back home....had a great, great time. The youth really enjoyed the trip - didn't want to go home.....again! Then we all stayed there for the rest of the week (Wed - Sunday) was the plan. On Sunday when we went down to the camper after church, it just poured the rain, and poured. About 4 pm, we decided that we would just go ahead and spend ANOTHER night!

So, we got home tonight, about 6 pm.

I have now spent 29, yes, 29 nights in the camper so far this camping season. I guess I will break my 43 night record this year.

I called my mother yesterday evening when we decided to stay. She said, "I guess you would live in that thing if you could". I agreed with her. I absolutely love it and Natural Tunnel is becoming my favorite place to hang out. There is just so much to do there - the girls love the trails to hike, the pool is great and usually not too crowded and there is lots of wildlife around there.

Anyway, we'll be going back in a few weeks if anybody is interested.

These two little varmints were nightly visitors to our campsite. They would come into our screen house with us sitting in it, even if the 4 of us were talking, laughing or whatever. Butch and I were smart enough to keep still and quiet, but the girls would giggle and laugh and wanted to pet them!! I was so afraid we were going to get sprayed. Anyway, they were pretty tame and never even hissed at us - though they were hissing at each other when they were fighting over a sandwich. They both wanted the one with mayo!!!! (Sounds just like my girls).

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You are a better person than I am. I couldn't have handled it. Right into the screen room! Geezh. I'm all for nature, but I don't want skunks close by. I would have to find some way to deter them at a distance, even if it meant an unhealthy demise. That or I would have just left and found another place to camp.

I'm home for my day off (Wed, so we can go to church for dinner and service) and figured I would just give everybody an update.

Hosting is going great - it has been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! We have been full the past two weekends, but last night, I was the only one in the campground! We were supposed to have 2 check in today and another one tomorrow, then we have a few (15 or so) for this weekend. Next weekend, race weekend, we are about full, but not quite. That may change before it gets here.

The only problems we have had was a domestic dispute last Friday morning and the ranger ended it really quickly! The staff is supportive and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. We will probably do it again next year, maybe at Nat Tunnel or maybe somewhere else.

If you get the urge, come and camp or at least drive in and stay a while with us - we have a fire most evenings now that it's getting cooler. Actually, it was very cool this morning, about 50 degrees.

That is one of the things that I liked about Hungry Mother State Park, lots of staff moving around and checking things out all during the day/evening and night. Very nice until it was time not to be. There was a problem with one of the camping groups while we were there and the ranger came calmed it down and gave the warning, the next evening here he comes again and out they went quickly. Would love to come over and meet you all one evening. I am headed out of town this evening until late Saturday but I will try maybe next week one eve. We just got back a couple of weeks ago from taking our church youth to a Reds game and Kings Island. I believe they would love a camp out. When they added the new campground, where did they put group camping? Hope to see you soon. Tommy Ellis

Tommy - I took my Jr. Youth SS class camping in April and again in June. They absolutely adored it. I even had a good time.

I don't know if they put in a group camping area - if they did, nobody said anything about it. I will check, though.

Come on by one evening - we aren't far away. I know that Don has a reservation for the race weekend - we might try to do a Vol Campers dinner or something one evening. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Hey Donna, I'm still planning on getting up there while you are hosting. Events are just conspiring against me so far. I may have to just drive up and roast a smore or something one evening.

I hope that I can make it up there Donna, but things are not looking that good.

Well, I'm back home for the evening and a little of the morning before returning to NT for "RACE WEEKEND"! We are pretty much booked - I think we have 2 spots open, at least, as of yesterday morning we did.

Planning and arrangements are being made for next weekend's (Labor Day) Papa Joe Smiddy music weekend at the park and I have been limited in the amount of ice that I can keep in stock in the campground. I can't use the freezer at the ampitheater to keep a stock up - so I guess I will be doing lots of running to and fro on Friday evening to keep all the coolers stocked.

I am having a great time down there, meeting lots of really nice people, seeing some beautiful campers (got my eye on a new 5th wheel now), and having some good camp fires in the evening since it's cooled off some............but, I am ready to get back home and get on a schedule for school.

As good as I sleep in the camper, I sure miss my tempurpedic bed at home when I don't get to sleep in it for several days (weeks).

Anyway, I know Don is scheduled to arrive at the campground this afternoon and I look forward to meeting him. Richard, Tim and TEllis, come on over one evening next week - the campground should be pretty empty between Sunday afternoon and when we pull out on Thursday morning. If you want to camp, that's great; or you can just come by my camp host spot and sit around the fire for a little while. If it's close to dinner time, I'll feed ya something!

Sounds great. I had all intentions in making it there this week but boy did the work hit me this week, day and evening. Sounds like a lot of work ahead of you as well.

I won't be able to make it. I got a paying project in Illinois all week. Setting my sites on Fall.

Donna, Looks like I will be able to come over that way this evening. Not sure on the time. Looking forward to meeting you all.

Sorry that I didn't get over there this evening. Just walked in the door from work

TEllis wrote:Sorry that I didn't get over there this evening. Just walked in the door from work

Well I did go and visit this last Sat. This is one way to get your camping days in.

It was great to see you, Cool. Wish you could have stayed for dinner - it was a good one.

We will be bringing the camper home tomorrow - just home for a few hours to go to church this evening.

We have had a wonderful time and I would recommend that if you have a chance, you give it a try. We were pretty much there for the entire month - I did come home and sleep in my bed for one or two nights, but I was not away for more than 18 hours each time. Butch was still working and he also went away to a conference for a week, so he didn't get the FULL experience.

I am planning to give it another whirl next year............that is, if we are asked to come back !!

Anyway, we, or at least, I have camped for 66 days this year and it's just now getting to the "good camping weather" season.

We will probably plan to go to Pigeon Forge again this year for Thanksgiving, but we haven't made any definite plans - we have to wait to see if we have the $$$$.

Wish more of you could have visited, but...there's always next year.

Really enjoyed my visit and wish I could have stayed longer. It took me just a 1hr & 20mins to drive home.